JERUSALEM—In the early hours of Wednesday 29 May, a swarm of Israeli police officers surrounded Badwan Al-Salaymeh’s home in the Bet Hanina neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Without prior warning or allowing the family to remove their belongings, two bulldozers transformed the two-story house into a disfigured mass of broken concrete blocks and mangled iron.

According to a press release issued by the Jerusalemites Campaign, Al-Salaymeh had been making monthly payments to the Jerusalem municipality and trying to obtain all the necessary building permits to correct the home’s legal status.

After residing for 13 years in house, in which there were four apartments, 13 people were displaced by its demolition.

Witnesses told Palestine Monitor that two minors were arrested for throwing stones at the heavily-armed police during the demolition. At the time of reporting, only one has been released from police custody.

Police also used sound bombs and tear gas despite the lack of resistance.

a conservative estimate of 60,000 Jerusalemites are vulnerable to having their homes demolished

Wednesday’s demolition marks the ninth in a two-week period. The Jerusalemites Campaign reports that at least “450 homes are currently awaiting demolition after receiving orders against them from the West Jerusalem municipality” and that “a conservative estimate of 60,000 Jerusalemites are vulnerable to having their homes demolished.”

Most Palestinian residents of Jerusalem who apply for permits are generally denied, part of a broader policy of pushing out the city’s indigenous Arab residents and entrenching Israeli settlements.

Al-Salaymeh erected a tent in the corner of the yard, under which sits a coffee table, a couch, and a set of plastic chairs. On the other end of the destroyed garden, a sole wooden shack is left standing. “I told them to destroy this shack if they wanted, but they had to bring it down on my head,” he said.

The Al-Salaymehs will stay in an extra family home in the West Bank village of Al-Ram until they rebuild their home in Bet Hanina.